second of opinion. the fox report. the news from fox news channel. guess who is back. you're not going to believe it. look here. oh, ryley factor is on >> tonight the new year not starting well for the obama administration as most americans want the military to handle the latest captured terrorists. >> why not treat them as an enemy combatant? use the interrogation techniques and try to get more information? >> we'll have is a number of reports on america's security in the age of obama. >> be a great example to the world. >> brit hume weighing in on the tiger woods fiasco with some religious advice. mr. hume will be here. >> bernie goldberg has been watching diane sawyer's anchor debut and the new team at "good

morning america." bernie has some thoughts. >> caution, you are about to enter the no spin zone. the factor begins right now. hi, i'm bill o'reilley. thanks for watching the first factor of the new decade. happy new year. hope you had a nice break. unfortunately we're back to reality and it's not pretty. america's national security is the subject of this evening's talking points memo. president obama's christmas could not have been calm after that loan from nigeria tried to blow up a northwest jet liner as it approached detroit. because the obama administration changed so many bush anti-terror policies, any terrorist activity will engender controversy. the president had to wince when homeland security chief napolitano initially stated that the system, quote, worked. of course, it did not work and the governor had to recant her statement 24 hours later.

that gave the anti-obama people the opening they needed to hammer the president and that criticism deeply offended the "washington post," which editorialized, quote, with dick cheney in the lead, they have embarked on an ugly course to use the attempted bombing incident to inflict political damage on president obama. what's worse, the claim that the incident shows the president's wrecklessness on the war on terror. >> that's the liberal view. but here is the truth. president obama has promoted a number of policies that most americans feel are not tough enough on al-qaeda. for example, new rasmussen polls says 71% of americans believe the nigerian bomber should be handled by the military. not tried in civilian court. more on that later. fox news anchor chris wallace asked his counter terrorism guy john brennan about that situation. >> why not treat him as an enemy

combatant, put him in a secret prison, use the interrogation techniques that president obama has specifically approved and try to get more information out of him? >> well, we have an array of tools we will use and we want to make sure we maintain flexibility as far as how we deal with these individuals. >> flexibility? where does the accused bomber lawyered up and stopped talking. flexibility? mr. brennan told cnn the government may try to offer the guy a plea bargain to get him talking again. but why bother with that when it's entirely legal to hold the terrorist as an enemy combatant and turn him over to the military? most americans and i agree see that -- the obama administration is so different than the bush administration in this area. >> the president does not describe this as a war on terrorism. that is because terrorism is but a tactic, a means to an end,

describing our efforts as a global war only plays into the warped narrative that al-qaeda promulgates. >> brennan's opinion there is not playing well with the folks. the attempted bombing of the airliner is very bad news for the obama administration. that's a memo. for the top story tonight, is american security good enough? joining us from washington fox newt gingrich. i think president obama has a problem. if you look at the initial polling, americans are going, look, we don't like the obama anti-terror strategy. am i wrong? >> i think it's deeper than that. the united states has a problem. if this was a political matter, then you could have one level of concern. but the fact is that we are in a war, our enemies are clever

enough to take haggai nearian, train him in yemen, ship him through amsterdam. our bureaucracy is so lacking in focus that even when this guy's father called the american embassy and warned us specifically about his son, we couldn't find a way to stop him and frankly issue the white house advisor yesterday made no sense when he said there was no smoking gun. we don't have to approve the visa or the flight of every foreigner who wants to come here. the burden of proof ought to be on that person. if somebody's father calls and says, my son has gone radical. i think he may be in a training camp. i think that ought to be a high hurdle for that person to get a visa to the united states or be allowed to fly into this country. >> you know the bureaucracy is always going to screw up. it's just never going to be entirely perfect. and this flight emanating in the netherlands and the way they do things is different than the way

we do things and now this overreaction, they're patting down everybody and all that. but the essential question is, in your opinion, are we safe? i mean, are these people going to be able to get through the shield and has the obama administration weakened our defenses against al-qaeda? >> we are not safe. we are in much greater danger than we were a year ago and it's not just bush versus obama. the north koreans had an additional year to build missiles. iranians had an additional year to develop their nuclear weapons and keep paying for terrorists. al-qaeda had an additional year. and by the way, two of the top four people in al-qaeda and yemen were released from guantanamo bay. the obama administration continues to release terrorists back. >> bush did that. bush released those two guys. >> he was wrong and the state department was wrong and the initial releases. we now have absolute proof

they're back in combat. one estimate by the defense is that 74 of the released terrorists from guantanamo bay have gone back to active terrorism against the united states. i think we have to confront the fact that this is going to be a much bigger, much harder war than we thought it was. if you look at the list that this guy was on, it's ten times the size of the no fly list. that tells you that the problem may be dramatically bigger than anybody in the administration -- >> 500,000 people on that list you refer to. but look, i don't understand a lot of things that are going on right now in our government. i don't understand the drive to close guantanamo bay, why it has to be done so quickly. i don't understand why khalid shaikh mohammed is being tried here in new york city when that's insane. i don't understand why this guy, the nigerian, wasn't handed over to the military for interrogation and now he's

lawyered up in michigan. i don't get any of that. do you understand what's driving it? >> let me add one more piece to it, bill, and then i'll suggest an answer. the president recently signed very quietly, an executive order that basically releases interpoll from all american constraints, freedom of information acts don't apply, all the constraints that you as a citizen could use against an american police force, based on a recent obama signed executive order, give interpol which has relationships with syria, libya, with iran, it gives them all sorts of extra legality in the united states in a way that has never, ever before been offered to interpol. i'm curious why the president is doing this. i believe what you have is a group of people centered in the justice department and the attorney general whose law firms all gave pro bono support to terrorism.

they start every day with a presumption that the rights of terrorists are more important than the lives of americans. >> i mean, why would anybody do that? the interpol thing, what's the importance of giving them more authority? what's the importance of that? >> well, what i'm told is that it could lead to a number of investigations by interpol in the united states, potentially aimed at american officials and the question i would raise is, why would the president of the united states give that kind of extra legal protection to an international police force. >> so you're saying that if it was any abuse by the c.i.a. or something like that, that interpol now has more authority to come into the united states and investigate it. got it. but look, do you really believe holder, the attorney general, gets up every day and says, i'm more concerned with terrorists than i am with my own family, protecting my own family? come on, that's impossible to believe.

>> why? >> why would any rational -- >> explain to me why -- >> why would any rational person want to do that? >> you interjected the word rational. >> you think he's a nut? >> i believe that holder believes, the attorney general believes that protecting the rights of terrorists -- for example, why would you take a nigerian national who just tried to blow up a plane over detroit -- remember, to create max number damage on the ground as well as in the air. this was a very intelligently designed attack if it worked. why would you take that person, put them in the american criminal justice system, give them an attorney, read them their miranda rights? you explain when you put all the dots together, why would you be releasing people back to yemen which is the center of terrorism? >> i don't know why. i just simply don't know why. i oppose all of the things that

you mentioned. but i can't believe a guy like eric holder puts the terrorists and their situation above his own family. >> i don't know if he personalizes it that way. i don't think he personalizes it that way. i think that he -- he lives in a world where somehow the united states is dangerous and the united states government is dangerous, but after all, let's go ahead -- for example, trying these terrorists in new york city in a criminal court is a terrible idea. >> i know. i know it is and i'm trying to get the why -- look, theoretically, the left wants all of this garbage. but when you see the guy on the plane, your daughter could have been on the plane. you see the guy groping with his underwear trying to blow the plane up and as you said, as soon as the plane lands and the f.b.i. comes on board, they hand him over to the civilian authorities rather than handing

him over to the military which could do many, many more things to find out who the guy is and what's going on. i'm not getting it. i'm going to continue to investigate. mr. speaker, we appreciate your point of you. thanks for being the first guest this decade. next, weighing in on the question, are we safe? brit hume has religious advice for tiger woods. he'll be here. adam lambert discusses me, your humble correspondent on jay leno. upcoming.

our lead story, the state of american security. are we safe? as mentioned, there is a major controversy over the al-qaeda bomber being charged in civilian court in michigan instead of military interrogating him. both are fox news analysts joining us. i just can't believe that holder

and his pals and president obama, who is obviously in charge, wake up every day and say, you know what? we're going to do all of these things that make america less safe. it just doesn't make any sense at all, does it to you? >> no, it doesn't make any sense. i agree with you. the guy's family, we're talking about the attorney general, holder, even on a personal basis, he'll say he'll put his family way before any crazy terrorist. but i think that what we're not picking up here is fidelity to the law. we have a constitution. we do care about -- >> the supreme court ruled that these are enemy combatants. they can be interrogated by the military. that's already been -- >> remember, bill. the shoe bomber was tried under the bush administration. you said there is so much difference between obama and the bush administration in terms of how we deal with it, i don't see it. i see more bombing by drones over pakistan. i see more of the kind of

secrecy in the court. the left think obama and bush have more in common. when you're talking about this, i think not only about richard reid, i think about the blind sheik, i think about all these guys -- >> this is the problem with that analysis. you've got padilla picked up in chicago, he goes to the military. okay? and as you pointed out, you got reid on the plane, he goes civilian. so there isn't any uniformity. but mary katherine, i know you agree with this, all of this chaos in our system, and that's exactly what it is -- is making us less safe. we don't have a uniformed way to deal with these people. does it make any sense to you, that this guy is mirandaizeed and lawyered up and can't tell who did what to him and how he got here? does that make any sense to anybody? >> does not make sense to me, especially coming from someplace that we know is a hotbed that obama said is a hotbed and knowing he has some connections

there and could tell us things. so we let him lawyer up. i think there is a little bit -- it seems a bit more arbitrary from the obama administration, who gets civilian treatment and who gets criminal treatment. >> the bush administration -- >> that was part of some conservative's problem with it. but now we've got, when you listen to brennan and holder, the justification for doing this are really, really thin. it doesn't make any sense. this is not the wire. we don't have to lawyer this guy up and bring in mickey d's to roll him. he can be an enemy combatant. obama has the luxury of doing that because we've gotten information out of him. many americans would like to do the same with this guy. you're right about the arbitrary nature. >> 71%, we got rasmussen coming up behind you. 71% of americans, and obviously that includes a lot of democrats, say, look, we don't want this guy in michigan.

we want him with the military. president obama, he can read. he sees that. and he also understands how angry americans are about this bombing attempt. so it's got to hurt him, does it not? >> on some level, yeah. in the immediate sense. but essentially it's like a lidge -- mob. >> when you ask about the 77%, you're getting my emotional reaction. you say if somebody's daughter. imagine if my daughter was on that plane, i would want to tear that guy's head off. you got to stop and think. >> i want to break this to you and mary katherine on the new year. it is emotional! okay? it is! >> but it's also a matter of law. let me break that to you. >> all right. i already went over this with you. it's already been adjudicated. they can do it. mary katherine, i'll give you the last word, go. >> you have the opportunity to

do this. obviously in this case, it would be very helpful and with ksm it was helpful and if you don't do it with this guy, where are you? american people are being rational. >> new poll says americans overwhelmingly want the military to handle captured terrorists. why is the president not getting the message? brit hume on tiger woods and religion. those reports after these messages.

rasmussen poll says 71% of likely voters believe the military should handle the captured muslim terrorist from nigeria. 58% say water boarding should be used on the guy to get information.

58%. that rasmussen poll and other data from the organization is being criticized by left wings who believe scott rasmussen is skewing his polling to the right. joining us from new jersey is mr. rasmussen. first of all, the difference between your poll and the fox news poll and other polls and they do differ on president obama's job approval rating. you have him pretty much the lowest. is that you poll only likely voters. is that correct? >> that is correct. we poll likely voters. most of the other media polled are adults. others are registered voters. their numbers are similar to ours. what we know is that when you talk about likely voters, people who are younger and minorities are less likely to show up and vote. those are groups that feel very supportive of the president. but they're not going to be helping out democrats at the polls come november. >> okay. now, you heard williams say that the polling numbers, 71% want the guy, the nigerian to go to the military, is based on emotion.

>> absolutely. >> people are angry. christmas, here is this idiot trying to blow up the plane. he gets off the plane and they go, let him go to the military and let the military take care of him. does that make your result any less valid? >> no. people aren't looking at this situation and trying to think very tactically about should we water board or use some other technique? that's not how people think. what they're saying is we want this situation dealt with in a firm manner. the number who want this treated by military is higher than the number we found for the fort hood shootings. why? because there have been two events. the american people are seeing our system has shift shifted too far of protecting others. >> what we can anticipate is lower job approval ratings for president obama in the early part of 2010 based upon the

anger against this guy and the shift that you're talking about? >> i don't know that it will be that much lower for the president. right now republicans are pretty united in their opposition to him. unaffiliated voters are strongly opposed. but democrats, the core base of the party, still very strongly supportive of everything that the president is doing. when we ask about his ratings overall on national security matters, guess what? most democrats, 70%, say he's doing a good or excellent job. but it doesn't -- >> that doesn't make sense with the 71% who disagree with the civilian court deal. >> they disagree, they disagree with that. that's right. democrats are looking for an aggressive response. but when you talk about the president's approval ratings, i don't think those issues are going to move them in the short-term. if things continue to progress, that could have an impact. >> all right. the left wing is all over you, saying you're shilling for the right and you reply how?

>> first of all, i really appreciate all the people that are complaining now, helping promote my polls in 2006 and 2008 because the trends were moving in that direction. we poll every single day. we pick up trends before any others. we saw the republican loss coming in a couple of cycles. now. guess what? the trends reversed and the people on the political left don't like the message. >> you're saying in 06 and 2008 when you saw the republican policies going south, you called that and they were fine with you. but now that it's in the opposite direction, they're not fine with you. okay. i want to point out that you were very, very close on the presidential election. you almost hit it 100%. >> that's correct. we had a great cycle for the presidential year. we also, in 2008, were the first people to show elizabeth dole trailing in the north carolina race back in 2006. we were the first to show george allen trailing, the first to show conrad burns in trouble. again, it's not because we're

doing something really special. we are polling every single day. >> you also called governor kristy in new jersey correctly also. so we have -- we use you a lot and we wouldn't if we felt that you were skewed in your polls one way or the other. doesn't look like you're sweating this too much. >> no. it's good to have the accusations aired. it's better than a whispering campaign and not at all concerned. we do our job the best we can and we just go from there. >> thank you. plenty more ahead as the factor moves along. adam lambert takes a shot at me on the leno program. dennis miller is to blame. wait until you hear this. brit hume has religious advice for tiger woods. interesting. we hope you stay tuned for thato report.

our pal brit has some religious advice for tiger woods. first, will pro fall further in approval polls because of his handling of the muslim terror bomber? joining us from washington, brit

hume. you heard the conversations with speaker gingrich and others. i do believe that there is a shift underway now to become tougher against terror. but the obama administration is not following that shift. am i wrong? >> i think you're right, bill. the president and his team have seen kind of two beats behind the music in a number of incidents in cases involving terrorism and counterterrorism. the fort hood bombing was one. the decision to treat these two defendants, the khalid shaikh mohammed, and the would be detroit bomber represents another. fear of terrorism can be and has been an extremely powerful political force. president bush responding to 9-11 strongly and quickly and with some eloquence proved what a force it can be on your behalf politically and carried him, i

think, right through the 2004 election. it faded in the public's concerns because of the success, i think, of the efforts to prevent another terrorist attack. now we had a very bad near miss. i think the public's fears have been reaquakened and i think it will tend to work against this president barring some striking reversal in his policies and approach. >> you anticipate that reversal, though, because president obama is a smart guy. he obviously knows where the winds are blowing. >> well, it's hard for me to believe he wouldn't feel these winds blowing. however, i do think there is one factor you and your guests may have overlooked and that is that the closing of guantanamo bay, the commitment to do that, campaign promise to do that, the determination to do that i think is at least a factor and at sometimes even the driving factor in the obama strategy. every time you treat a defendant -- potential terrorist as a criminal defendant, you relieve yourself of the obligation of finding someplace to put him, to imprison him.

>> but they got the illinois prison. >> i know that. but none of those things is comfortable or popular, bill. i think it's fair to say that the administration is not looking to add to the list of people it has to find housing for as it seeks to close down guantanamo bay. look at the trouble they're having with the prisoners that the bush administration sent back to yemen. this is becoming a political headache and yet the determination to press forward seems unabated. that's what i'm trying to get it. >> you're in washington, an insider. how does that feel to be a washington insider? >> i've never considered -- >> come on, you walk into any salon in dc, they all know you. >> as you know, that doesn't always make you an insider in precincts such as washington. >> but they all love you. now, brennan, counter terrorism, we hear that there is bad blood going back and forth between him and panetta. you hear that?

>> i've heard that, but i really don't think there is any way to assess that. i don't think the personnel in these agencies really the problem. i really think this starts at the top. i don't think that counter terrorism was an issue that greatly interested this president. he had his sites set on other matters. i don't think it's been a priority. i suspect it will become one. >> it certainly will because if there is another one, now after fort hood and this, all hell will break loose in this country. sunday you got into a subject that was interesting. nonpolitical. a social embarrassment for tiger woods. and you said this about mr. woods. roll the tape. >> he is said to be a buddhist. i don't think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the christian faith. so my message to tiger would be, tiger, turn to the christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world. >> was that proselytizing?

>> i don't think so. look, tiger woods is somebody i've always rooted for as a golfer and as a man. i greatly admired him over the years and always said it was the content of his character that made him beyond his golf skills so admirable. now we know the content was not what we thought it was. he is pay ago frightful price for these revelations. my sense is he's basically lost his family and there is a lot of talk about the endorsements he's lost. but that pales in his mind, i suspect, with what he's lost otherwise and my sense about tiger is that he needs something that christianity, especially provides and gives and offers. that is redemption and forgiveness. and i was really meaning to say in those comments yesterday more about christianity than i was about anything else. i mentioned the buddhism only because his mother is a buddhist and he apparently said he is a buddhist. i'm not sure how seriously he practices that. but i think that the jesus christ offers tiger woods

something that tiger woods badly needs. >> now, if he does go that route, then he would be accused of -- remember in the bill clinton years, he got in trouble, he had the bible and jesse jackson and they were praying and, you know, wouldn't -- >> that's true, bill and that wasn't the first time. remember chuck colson, who is one of the leading lights of watergates, if you will. >> he made a true conversion. >> he did. and what i'm saying is if tiger woods were to make a true conversion, we would know it. it would show through in his being and he would know it, above all. he would feel the extraordinary blessing that that would be. and it would shine because he is so prominent. it would be a shining light and i think it would be a magnificent thing to witness. >> now, what kind of reaction did you get when you said that? a lot of letters and e-mails and things? >> i got some letters and e-mails from people who were like me, who are believers who said, great. right on. way to go. i heard a lot of terrible

comments from people who claim i was a pompous jerk who had no business mouthing off on the subject and i shouldn't have be littled the buddhist faith. i wasn't trying to do that. >> i don't think so either. what do you think drives the negative comments about buddhism aside, i don't think we're trying to denigrate that. but what do you think drives the negative comments about christianity? >> it has always been a puzzling thing to me. the bible even speaks of it, that you speak the name, jesus christ, and i don't mean to make a pun here, but all hell breaks loose. and it has always been thus. it is explosive. i didn't even say the name in that way. i simply spoke of the christian faith. but that was enough to trigger this reaction. it triggers a very powerful reaction in people who do not share the faith and who do not believe in it. >> all right. brit hume, everybody. thanks very much. happy new year. when we come back, bernie goldberg on profiling arabs at the airport. should we do that?

diane sawyer taken over as the chief anchor for abc news. also ahead, adam lambert goes on leno and says some sarcastic things about me. can that be possible? ahead.

i'm bill o'reilley and tonight, mr. goldberg has been changing the changes at abc news. first his new column available says the usa must, must profile arabs. bernie joins us from miami, the author of the best selling book, a slobbering love affair. this is an interesting program tonight because you've been listening to it and everybody is getting engaged in the one question about attorney general holder, why would he put the so-called rights of terror suspects above his own family?

because the terror suspects are going to attack dc if they can. and they use a low level nuke if they could. so i'm not getting it. you want to weigh in on it? >> a little bit. let's just start out, let's forget the washington angle for a second. eric holder isn't putting terrorists's rights over the safety of his own family. he's putting terrorist rights over the safety of your own family. and my own family and the family of every single person watching us tonight. barak obama is against what he calls torture, water boarding. he'd water board the hell out of anybody if they had his two beautiful little daughters. and i wouldn't blame him one bit. but he wouldn't water board anybody for your daughters or their daughters or their daughters or anybody else's. that's the hypocrisy of forgive me of the left, i don't want to make generalization, but it's the hi possible chrisy of the

left that puts so-called american values over everything else. what american value would they be holding up if some other knuckle head blows up an airplane because they didn't want to profile? i mean, profiling has gotten americans killed already at fort hood. it almost got americans killed on christmas day and i fear, i hope i'm wrong, but i fear it's going to get us killed at some point in the future. >> so your solution is that every arab male get shaken down before they get on a plane? what do you want to see? >> well, what i want to see -- i want to acknowledge right off the bat that a 23-year-old man from riad or beirut or, yes, any place in the arab world, is not the same as a 78-year-old woman from peoria. they're just not the same. they don't pose the same potential risk or threat.

i don't want to see the arab man taken into the back room and get the rubber hose treatment. i'm saying he should be questioned, he should be given more scrutiny than the 78-year-old woman who should breeze on through. but the tsa people at the airport, i mean, i know they want to do a good job, but these people remind me of barney fife on the old andy griffith show. barney would hassle some old lady who was j walking in mayberry because rules are rules, and these guys, the ones -- these guys, they'll hassle some old lady because she's taking lip gloss on an airplane or you have too much shampoo you're taking on an airplane. bill, everybody watching us now, everybody who has ever been through an airport, knows that this is crazy. i wouldn't mind it, by the way, if i felt safer after they took my shampoo away or my conditioner or a snow globe.

i don't feel safer and i don't think anybody watching us right now feels safer. this is just craziness. >> it's covering, it's a cya move. it is frustrating, no doubt about it. because the terrorists win when they create this kind of chaos. now, let's shift over to your usual beat, which is the media. diane sawyer takes over for charles gibson on abc news. do you care? >> i really don't. >> does anybody? >> no. i don't think it matters all that much anymore. once upon a time it would have mattered. but i think that the dinosaur media are becoming less and less relevant by the day. it doesn't matter if diane -- who is very good and very smart, very nice person, but it doesn't matter if her ratings are a little higher than charlie gibson's or a little lower. and here is why it doesn't

matter. ten years ago, according to the nielsen people, ten years ago, 32 million americans were watching the evening news during the dinner hour. today, 24 million americans. they've lost 8 million viewers in the last decade. that's a 25% drop. i use this line in my first book. if these guys were selling shoes instead of news, they'd be out of business by now. >> do you think they don't matter anymore at all, the three network newscasts, they don't really engage at all? >> they matter -- no, if you say at all, i would say no, i disagree with that. they do matter in that a lot of people still watch them. 24 million people, that's still a lot of people. but if you want to look at trajectory, theirs is heading south and the trajectory -- and i'm not saying this because i'm on fox. i don't care about that stuff. the trajectory of fox is going

north. that's something that ought to concern them very, very much. >> how about the morning shows, stephanopoulos, a political guy, probably touch up gma a little. does that matter? >> the last time i watched one of the network morning shows, i was 7. >> 7? >> yeah, 7. >> that was when u.s. grant was a guest host. right? >> hey, hey, hey. i get physically ill if i have to watch one of those morning shows. i can't do it. i can't. >> do they matter, the decent audience? >> they matter in that they make money for the networks. that matters. >> but not on the public policy front? >> i mean, i don't think the morning shows ever really mattered on the public policy front, even in the days when they did real news, i don't think they mattered.

the evening news is becoming less and less relevant by the money. >> happy new year. reality check. adam lambert discusses me on the leno show. and the movie, avatar.

reality check, where we begin with a misunderstanding. check one. you may remember singer adam lambert's controversial performance on the american music awards last november. apparently mr. lambert believes that i disparaged his relationship with his father on the factor because of that display. of course, that's not true. but did not stop mr. lambert from saying this on the leno program. >> my father was rumored to be like mortified by what i did

and, like, now we're not speaking. that's a rumor. come on. and i think bill o'reilley perpetuated that. lovely man he is. everybody has their opinion. but no, my father and i had a conversation on the phone that was just like, we were laughing about it. >> now, we don't believe mr. lambert is a factor viewer, but i appreciate being called a lovely man. so he may have received his information secondhand. the truth is, dennis miller is to blame for everything. >> i'll tell you who does fascinate me, billy. not adam lambert, but adam lambert's dad who came out and said, listen, i just think it was a bad choice taste wise. good for him. so many of these kids live in rarefied era, i love the fact the old man can simultaneously say, i love my kid, i'm proud of him. this might have been a bad choice. that's all he asked for. i find adam lambert's dad to be fascinating.

>> i hope that cleared it up. check 2, the movie, avatar, big hit. >> to drive these remotely controlled bodies and they're grown from human dna mixed with the dna of the natives. looks like him. >> looks like you. this is your opportunity, jake. >> after 17 days, avatar grossed more than a billion dollars. an astounding number. it becomes the second most lucrative movie of all time, second behind titanic. check 3, some americans believe the network news organizations skew left big time and it's hard to argue with that when the cbs sunday morning program presents something like this. >> it has been suggested that the appropriate designation for this decade might be the post-9-11 era. others argue that to give the decade such a name would be

letting the terrorists win. as if the cumulative casualties of war and the infringements of civil liberties that took place under president bush were not already evidence of at least partial victory. the decade saw the unimaginable unfolding, the depravity -- katrina and still more remarkable, an african-american intellectual >> that kind of analysis would be fine if it was accompanied by a more conservative point of view, but it was not. check was offended. check 4, the gallop people polled people to find the winners and loses. topping the list, michelle obama, 73% see her as a winner. runner up, secretary of state clinton. 70% believe she has a winning way. on the loser front, south

carolina governor sanford tops the chart, followed by south carolina congressman joe wilson who called president obama a liar. check 5, a look into the future. the mayo clinic in arizona will stop accepting medicare clinics because the government reimbursement is too low. they're ha hallmark of the new health care legislation. so this is just the beginning if you care. 3,000 arizonans do care because they will not be treated any longer at the clinic if they file under medicare. check 6, good news from iraq. no american troops killed there in december. in combat. three died from noncombat causes. so far about 4400 americans, military members, have died in iraq. about 3500 in combat. 32,000 americans have been wounded. currently 110,000 american troops do remain in iraq. check 7, the university of florida defeated north carolina state in basketball on sunday and here is how it went down.

>> he's going to come from probably half court. missed the 3 three. now the three. he got it! the gators won the game! what a job! >> i could do that. finally, check 8, 29-year-old nicholas nunly tried to steal a coca-cola machine in tennessee recently. it did not work well. police followed him and photographed him with a dash cam. cops chased him for five miles. finally they pulled him over and tasered him. he was charged with theft and vandalism, among other things. not exactly the perfect crime. that's reality check. out of control elephant, here he comes. right back with it.

can you imagine spending christmas in iraq or afghanistan? hundreds of thousands of americans did just that defending our country. and we would like to salute some entertainers who went to those war zones over the holidays. they include country singer billy ray cyrus. there he is. tennis star anna kournikova, and comedian who signed autographs and posed for pictures. anybody who goes abroad to entertain our troops is a patriot. an elephant got rattled. >> he just wanted a better seat. what's the problem? that display took place outside a temple where the six-year-old elephant was marching in a religious procession. two people were hurt. there he goes. hundreds were unsettled.

so we must make the elephant a pinhead. finally tonight, let's get 2010 off to a great start by becoming a bill o'reilley.com premium member. our no spin news segment. discount on all our star, back stage conversation where i'm asked questions and i answer. and daily message board so you can debate the factor with other premium members. membership is inexpensive, fun and educational. we would like to you check it out for 2010. in nevada, i'm 14, and just subscribed to the factor pod cast on i tunes, they are very bold and fresh. i appreciate what you did even though i don't quite understand it. robin, florida, bill, would a jewish girl like me enjoy bowl fresh? you will get the structure because judeo christian philosophy is part of the book.

holly, indiana, it's disappointing that you are overlooked for the football coach position at notre dame. disappointing to whom, holly? i can see my recruiting style right now. hey, you are coming and that's it! no spin. kim, mississippi. bill, not only did i get the american patriot coffee mug and the shirt i asked for, i also got the auto decal for christmas. you must have been very good last year. in california, i received a no spin door mat for christmas and i'm thrilled with it. included was a book and we say merry christmas bumper sticker. it was a great christmas. that's excellent to hear. in oregon, how about not being inindividualious. meaning tending to rouse ill

will. i'm with you all the way on that. jesse allen in afghanistan, i'm an army medic stationed here and we were hoping -- we -- i'm sorry. i am an army medic stationed here and was hoping you could send us some factor gear. we work with operation shoe box to do that, jesse. information about shoe box veil on bill o'reilley.com. stay say. in canada, bold fresh is mostly sold out up here. my wife found a copy. happy new year. right back at you. in california, received bold fresh for christmas and read it quickly. things haven't been great, but it inspired me to keep trying and do my best. that's the secret to life. i predict a good year for you in 2010. the bold fresh tour sold out quickly in long island.

i was disappointed that i got tickets for christmas. see you there. absolutely. by the way, beck and i are working on other places to take the bold fresh tour in 2010. when we have stuff nailed down, we'll pass it along. we'd be fools not to. in kentucky, my father read bold fresh in record time. any other suggestions for books for him to read? i have a list of books i like posted on my web site. if he wants another one from me, culture warriors. those who trespass is a provocative novel. e-mail us. when writing to us, do not be this: the "washington post" used this word. that is it for us today. we continue 24/7 on bill